Millersville Opens Disaster Center
On September 12, Millersville University of Pennsylvania announced the establishment of a Center for Disaster Research and Education (CDRE). The center's mission includes conducting research into the behavioral and organizational response to disasters and terrorism as well as risk and hazards assessment; disseminating research findings to the public, mass media, and emergency management personnel; contributing to the education of disaster researchers, public policy makers, emergency managers, and other concerned community members; and contributing to public policy development and the creation of disaster-resilient communities.
The center currently coordinates the university's new multidisciplinary minor in environmental hazards and emergency management and plans to develop a distance learning certificate program in that discipline. It is also considering establishing a master's program in emergency management. In the recent past, center staff have worked on a consulting basis for several federal agencies, providing expertise regarding natural and technological disasters as well as terrorist threats. As part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's effort to expand emergency management education in the U.S., the center is currently conducting a project to identify the various relevant educational activities provided by U.S. colleges and universities.
The center anticipates undertaking several future grant-supported projects, including the development of training and educational materials for use in schools in the member nations of the Organization of American States, collaborative research with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, and collaborative research with the Canadian Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction. Partnerships are also being developed with the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security, and the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Emergency Management Agency.
In addition, the center is publishes the newsletter UnScheduled Events and the new on-line journal Contemporary Disaster Review, both of which are official publications of the International Research Committee on Disasters of the International Sociological Association. In the near future, the CDRE will host an on-line version of the research journal, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters.
Persons interested in learning more about the CDRE are invited to visit the center's web site: http://www.millersville.edu/~CDRE, or contact the center director, Henry W. Fischer, Department of Sociology, Millersville University of Pennsylvania, P.O. Box 1002, Millersville, PA 17551-0302; (717) 872-3568; fax: (717) 871-2429; e-mail: hfischer@millersville.edu.
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